Yesterday, Saturday 12th November 2011, two lucky observers watched Derbyshire’s fourth/fifth Glossy Ibis for 15-30 minutes at Willington Gravel Pits, before the bird flew off and disappeared, much to the disappointment of several top Derbyshire Listers!! Lucky for me I didn’t need it for my Derbyshire List!! Needless to say there was no further sign of it this morning. Willington was back to normal!! A few Little Egrets, a pair of Pintail, a flock of 34 Golden Plover and a selection of common Wildfowl, including 5 Goldeneye were all of note. IMAGES – Adult Little Egret / Golden Plover […]
This morning I went looking for the Great White Egret at the local Gravel Pit complex at Barrow-on-Trent. No luck despite extensive searching, viewing from the footpath at Ingleby. Just a few Grey Heron & a single Little Egret and three female Goosander on the river. Oh well !! A couple of Common Buzzard put on a cracking display in a clear blue sky above Foremark Reservoir. Also here a single female Goosander but very little else. IMAGE – Common Buzzard
My 28th consecutive trip to the “Sacred Isles”, the Isles of Scilly. What a week – 2 lifers; 3 “Yankie” passerines and 5 “Yankie” waders, plus a self found Dusky Warbler. Plenty of padders helped us to achieve 101 species for the week. Arriving on Saturday 22nd October, I was anxious to get the Northern Waterthrush, a North American warbler, very rare to Britain. A new bird for me and the first tick on Scilly for a number of years. Plenty of extremely rare birds for Britain to go for – such as Wilson’s Snipe, Upland Sandpiper and Olive-backed Pipit. […]
“Holy Gwacker Moley” – I couldn’t believe my eyes when I read my MEGA ALERT on my pager Friday night. A Rufous-tailed Robin in Norfolk!! Saturday morning we were on site at Wareham Greens in North Norfolk early but unfortunately and mega disappointingly, the little bugger had done a runner. Two hundred other birders must have felt just like me – gutted. Well done to the birder that discovered it, it must have been a pulse racing moment, to actually find one of those birds that we all dream of finding. Typically, with most asiatic vagrant passerines, they […]